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Senate Vote Is Now Likely On Chemical Arms Treaty

With Democrats threatening to stall action on most other legislation, the Senate's Republican majority leader, Trent Lott, indicated today that the full Senate would vote on whether to approve a treaty to ban chemical weapons.

In a day of conflicting reports, the Democratic minority leader said Mr. Lott had pledged to bring the treaty to a vote before the pact takes effect in three weeks. Later, Mr. Lott issued a statement saying only that he hoped he could ''conclude'' such an agreement with the Administration on Wednesday.

''A number of issues -- both substantive and procedural -- need to be resolved,'' Mr. Lott said in the statement issued this evening. ''And I hope they will be soon.''

Even as the prospects for a vote improved, along with the Administration's optimism that the treaty will get through the Senate, it faced intense attack by prominent conservatives. They appeared before the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, whose chairman, Jesse Helms of North Carolina, is one of the treaty's most steadfast opponents.

The critics -- three former Secretaries of Defense under Republican Presidents, joined by a fourth who sent a letter -- argued that the treaty would do little to rid the world of chemical weapons.

Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, said it would expose American chemical manufacturers to international scrutiny and even espionage by foreign inspectors, while it allowed countries that continue to stockpile chemical weapons to elude detection and punishment.

Today's hearing came only days after President Clinton held a pep rally on the White House's South Lawn with prominent Republican supporters of the treaty, including former Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d and the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin L. Powell.

The treaty, known as the Chemical Weapons Convention, prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. It expands a looser ban on the use of poison gas in warfare first imposed by the Geneva Convention of 1925. The treaty, negotiated during the Reagan and Bush Administrations and signed in the waning days of George Bush's presidency in 1993, has been ratified by 70 nations and takes effect on April 29.

But even if the Senate does not approve it, the treaty still imposes restrictions on the exports of American chemical companies and subjects them to possible penalties.

In the jockeying today, the minority leader, Tom A. Daschle of South Dakota, warned that the Democrats would refuse to take action on any legislation ''except in cases of emergency'' unless the Republican leadership allowed a vote.

Mr. Daschle later dropped his threat after receiving assurances from Mr. Lott in a telephone conversation that the treaty would go to the floor of the Senate by next week, according to Mr. Daschle's spokeswoman, Ranit Schmelzer.

By indicating to Mr. Daschle that the treaty would go to a vote, though not scheduling one, Mr. Lott appeared to put pressure on Mr. Helms to come to some agreement with the Clinton Administration. Mr. Helms has insisted that he will not allow the treaty out of his committee for a vote unless the Administration does more to address his concerns.

In today's hearing, there was no sign that he was softening his opposition. Mr. Helms said the treaty would do nothing to protect American soldiers or citizens from chemical weapons, while exposing companies to burdensome regulations and un-Constitutional inspections.

''Outside the Beltway, where people don't worship at the altar of arms control, that's what we call a bum deal,'' Mr. Helms said.

Mr. Lott also appeared to be pressuring the Administration. Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, he said he did not think the April 29 date necessarily bound the United States, as the White House has strenuously argued. But he said it was a ''major treaty'' and every effort should be made to reach agreement before then.

Mr. Lott's spokeswoman, Susan Irby, said tonight that he had discussed scheduling a vote by an unanimous consent agreement, a procedural move that can be blocked by any Senator, including Mr. Helms.

But she added that if the Administration wanted an agreement, it needed to ''start making progress'' on unrelated issues, including a reorganization of the State Department and affiliated agencies and a plan to pay back dues to the United Nations.

In addition to Mr. Weinberger, the committee heard criticism from James R. Schlesinger and Donald M. Rumsfeld, Secretaries of Defense under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Mr. Schlesinger derided the treaty's provisions that allow for inspections of chemical companies to insure that weapons are not being produced, saying that was ''a godsend to foreign intelligence agencies.''

In a letter, Richard Cheney, the Secretary of Defense under Mr. Bush, added his opposition.

''The technology to manufacture chemical weapons is simply too ubiquitous, covert chemical warfare programs too easily concealed, and the international community's record of responding effectively to violations of arms control treaties too unsatisfactory to permit confidence that such a regime would actually reduce the chemical threat,'' Mr. Cheney wrote.

In a sign of the importance of the treaty to the Administration, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright hastily arranged an appearance this afternoon. She told the committee that the nation should not refuse the treaty simply because rogue states refuse to comply or try to cheat.

''When it comes to the protection of Americans, the lowest common denominator is not good enough,'' she said. ''Those who abide by the law, not those who break it, must establish the rules by which all should be judged.''